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Neophilologus (2007) 91:6381 Springer 2007 DOI 10.1007/s11061-006-9005-0
GUSTAVO PEREZ FIRMATS BILINGUAL BLUES AND TURNING THE TIMES TABLES: LANGUAGE CHOICE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY IN CUBANAMERICAN
LITERATURE
ANNABEL COX
Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, EnglandE-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
Following a brief contextualization of bilingual CubanAmerican literature in relation to both Latino writing and Cuban exile ction, this article moves on to consider the meaning and placement of both the Spanish and English languages in Gustavo Prez Firmats poetry collection Bilingual Blues. It then turns to a close analysis of two of the mixed language poems of this text, namely Bilingual Blues and Turning the Times Tables. These are discussed in terms of suggested cultural aliations and identications, as indicated in the poets use of not only languages but also imagery and intertextual reference. Such factors are also connected with certain theoretical debates regarding migration and identity in this article.
English, Spanish, and bilingual writing and the CubanAmerican contextThere are many differences to be found between CubanAmerican and other Latino literature, that is, literature written by members of other migrated groups in the United States with their origins in Latin America. One of the most notable differences is the relative scarcity of bilingual production in the CubanAmerican context. However, when bilingual literature is produced by CubanAmerican writers, in common with other Latino bilingual production, it calls into question US-anglophone assumptions concerning superior and inferior cultures clearly indicated in attitudes towards non-English languages in the United States. However, it is not only Anglo-US attitudes that carry importance in the question of language choice in literature for non-rst-generation writers of Cuban origin residing there. There are often strong ideological as well as practical considerations behind the language choices made relating to Cuban as well as US realities, and CubanAmerican bilingual literature asserts not only a challenge to mainstream Anglo but also Cuban exile norms.
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Annabel Cox
Bilingual literature rejects not only the assumption of a purely English-language voice for the writer, but also a purely Spanish one too. However, within the eld of CubanAmerican literature there are indeed bilingual individuals who choose to write solely in Spanish such as Uva de Aragon (also known as Uva Clavijo), Rosario Hiriart, and Lourdes Gil, amongst others....